Systems and methods for enhanced information visualization

ABSTRACT

In accordance with the present invention, an information management application that provides users with the ability to create and customize matrix displays of information relating to a particular product or service for navigation by other users is provided.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/881,905 filed on Jul. 30, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,224,713, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/834,002, filedJul. 28, 2006, the entire disclosures of each of which are incorporatedby reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of information visualization,and more particularly towards systems and methods for organizing anddisplaying infoiination for enhanced navigation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the advent of the World Wide Web, a vast amount of information hasbeen made available to a large group of users. With the increasingamount of information that is made available to users, this makes itincreasingly difficult for users to navigate through all the availableinformation.

To allow users to locate information on the World Wide Web, a number ofsearch engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo, etc.) have been developed andprovided. A search engine is a program that searches web pages forspecified keywords or search terms and returns a list of web pages wherethe keywords were found. For example, a user looking for informationrelating to “consumer reports on Honda Minivans” generally receives alist of hyperlinks to web pages with some or all of those words in them,Search engines will normally look in their entire database of targetwebsites for relevant results, generate a list of hyperlinks toparticular web pages, and rank the list in order of relevance.Alternatively, a user can obtain information by directly accessing aparticular web page or using a search engine to conduct a search on anindividual website.

However, search engines are often less than precise and a user typicallyneeds to peruse and sort through a large amount of information to findthe information or portions of the information that the user is lookingfor. As a result, a user generally misses the desired information thatis buried in the search results. This problem is applicable to anycollection of information or records.

Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods thatovercome these and other deficiencies of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, systems and methods forproviding an information management application are provided.

In some embodiments, the information management application receivesinformation from a user that relates to a product or a service.Alternatively, the information management application may receive aquery from the user for information relating to a product or a service.In response, the application transmits the query to multiple informationsources (e.g., search engines, informational websites, etc.). Theapplication may then receive the information from the multipleinformation sources.

In some embodiments, the information management application may compilethe information for a particular product or service and display a matrixdisplay that organizes the received information into a plurality oftopics and/or categories.

In some embodiments, the information management application maydetermine whether updated information is available by transmitting asecond query to the plurality of information sources. In response toreceiving the updated information from one or more of the informationsources, the information management application updates the matrixdisplay to include the updated information from at least one of theinformation sources. The information management application may alsodisplay an indicator that notifies the user that updated information hasbeen received.

In some embodiments, the information management application may retrievemetadata or any other suitable tag from the information entered by theuser or from the information retrieved by the information managementapplication to determine categories of information (e.g., Prices,Dealerships, Consumer Reports, etc.). Alternatively, the user may inputthe categories to the information management application.

In some embodiments, the information management application may allowthe user to provide access to the matrix display generated for the user.In some embodiments, the application may allow the plurality of users toadd and/or edit information in the matrix display.

In some embodiments, the information management application may provideusers with one or more purchasing opportunities. The informationmanagement application may set up a bulk transaction such that a groupof users receive a discount for purchasing a product or a service inbulk. In some embodiments, the information management application mayprovide the user with a purchasing opportunity that provides the userswith leverage to negotiate with the manufacturer, distributor, orseller.

Thus, there has been outlined, rather broadly, the more importantfeatures of the invention in order that the detailed description thereofthat follows may be better understood, and in order that the presentcontribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course,additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafterand which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

in this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of theinvention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited in its application to the details of construction and to thearrangements of the components set forth in the following description orillustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of otherembodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways.Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminologyemployed herein are for the purpose of description and should not beregarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception,upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basisfor the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carryingout the several purposes of the present invention. It is important,therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalentconstructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

These together with other objects of the invention, along with thevarious features of novelty which characterize the invention, arepointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming apart of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention,its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses,reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptionmatter in which there is illustrated preferred embodiments of theinvention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various objects, features, and advantages of the present invention canbe more fully appreciated with reference to the following detaileddescription of the invention when considered in connection with thefollowing drawing, in which like reference numerals identify likeelements.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an illustrative information managementsystem on which an information management application may be implementedin accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an illustrative workstation and serveras provided, for example, in FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodimentsof the present invention.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are illustrative flowcharts illustrating the stepsperformed in generating and displaying a matrix display in accordancewith some embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 5-8 are illustrative information displays that may be provided inaccordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following description includes many specific details. The inclusionof such details is for the purpose of illustration only and should notbe understood to limit the invention. Moreover, certain features whichare well known in the art are not described in detail in order to avoidcomplication of the subject matter of the present invention. Inaddition, it will be understood that features in one embodiment may becombined with features in other embodiments of the invention.

In accordance with the present invention, systems and methods fororganizing and displaying information for enhanced navigation areprovided (hereinafter “the information management application” or “theapplication”). In particular, systems and methods that allow users toconstruct customized displays of information and/or make decisionsrelating to the displayed information are provided.

Generally speaking, the present invention allows a user to create acustomizable matrix display of information. For example, the user mayhave reviewed information on various web pages and other sources ofinformation to research the purchase of a specific product or service(e.g., an automobile, a vacation, a compact disc player, etc.). Inanother example, the user may have inputting a query for informationrelating to a specific product or service. Upon obtaining informationfrom various sources, the user may transmit the obtained information tothe information management application. The information managementapplication may use information organizing templates to create a visualdisplay that provides a single source of information to other users. Thevisual display may include, for example, icons, graphics, and/or othervisual representations that, upon selection, access particularinformation from various sources (e.g., a particular web page). Otherusers may use the information for the researching their purchasingopportunities. That is, without replicating the same or substantiallysimilar research that the user performed or performing research of hisor her own using various sources, one or more of the other users mayaccess the information obtained by the user and navigate through thatinformation to research and/or make a purchasing decision on aparticular product or a particular service.

Other users may also edit or add additional information based on theirresearch. For example, another user with a similar purchasing experiencemay add information that the user obtained. The additional informationmay include, for example, reviews, hyperlinks, information from othersearches, etc.

Other users may also access the visual display to create purchasingoptions (e.g., purchasing in bulk). For example, a user may access thevisual display and indicate that the user is interested in purchasingthe specific product (e.g., a particular automobile) in bulk. Inresponse to obtaining a given number of interested users, each user mayreceive a discount on the specific product. In another example, themanufacturer or distributor of the specific product may only provide theusers with the specific product if a given number of users indicatetheir interest in purchasing the product.

Using this application, the user may generate a visual display ofinformation obtained by the user in researching a specific product or aspecific service. In response, other users may use the visual display toresearch, order, and receive the specific product or the specificservice.

The following FIGS. 1-8 and their accompanying descriptions providedetailed examples of the implementation of the systems and methods ofthe present invention.

FIG. 1 is a generalized schematic diagram of an illustrative informationmanagement system 100 on which an information management application maybe implemented in accordance with some embodiments of the presentinvention. As illustrated, system 100 may include one or moreworkstations 102. Workstations 102 may be local to each other or remotefrom each other. Workstations 102 are connected by one or morecommunications links 104 to a communications network 106 that is linkedvia a communications link 108 to a server 110.

System 100 may include one or more servers 110. Server 110 may be anysuitable server for providing access to the information managementapplication, such as a processor, a computer, a data processing device,or a combination of such devices. Communications network 106 may be anysuitable computer network including the Internet, an intranet, awide-area network (“WAN”), a local-area network (“LAN”), a wirelessnetwork, a digital subscriber line (“DSL”) network, a frame relaynetwork, an asynchronous transfer mode (“ATM”) network, a virtualprivate network (“VPN”), or any combination of any of such networks.Communications links 104 and 108 may be any communications linkssuitable for communicating data between workstations 102 and server 110,such as network links, dial-up links, wireless links, hard-wired links,any other suitable communications links, or a combination of such links.Workstations 102 enable a user to access features of the informationmanagement application. Workstations 102 may be personal computers,laptop computers, mainframe computers, dumb terminals, data displays,Internet browsers, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), two-way pagers,wireless terminals, portable telephones, any other suitable accessdevice, or any combination of such devices. Workstations 102 and server110 may be located at any suitable location. In one embodiment,workstations 102 and server 110 may be located within an organization.Alternatively, workstations 102 and server 110 may be distributedbetween multiple organizations.

The server and one of the workstations, which are depicted in FIG. 1,are illustrated in more detail in FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 2,workstation 102 may include processor 202, display 204, input device206, and memory 208, which may be interconnected. In a preferredembodiment, memory 208 contains a storage device for storing aworkstation program for controlling processor 202.

Processor 202 uses the workstation program to present on display 204 theapplication and the data received through communications link 104 andcommands and values transmitted by a user of workstation 102. It shouldalso be noted that data received through communications link 104 or anyother communications links may be received from any suitable source,such as WebServices. Input device 206 may be a computer keyboard, acursor-controller, dial, switchbank, lever, or any other suitable inputdevice as would be used by a designer of input systems or processcontrol systems.

Server 110 may include processor 220, display 222, input device 224, andmemory 226, which may be interconnected. In a preferred embodiment,memory 226 contains a storage device for storing data received throughcommunications link 108 or through other links, and also receivescommands and values transmitted by one or more users. The storage devicefurther contains a server program for controlling processor 220.

In some embodiments, the information management application may includean application program interface (not shown), or alternatively, theapplication may be resident in the memory of workstation 102 or server110. In another suitable embodiment, the only distribution toworkstation 102 may be a graphical user interface (“GUI”) which allows auser to interact with the information management application residentat, for example, server 110.

In one particular embodiment, the information management application mayinclude client-side software, hardware, or both. For example, theapplication may encompass one or more Web-pages or Web-page portions(e.g., via any suitable encoding, such as HyperText Markup Language(“HTML”), Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (“DHTML”), Extensible MarkupLanguage (“XML”), JavaServer Pages (“JSP”), Active Server Pages (“ASP”),Cold Fusion, or any other suitable approaches).

Although the information management application is described herein asbeing implemented on a workstation and/or server, this is onlyillustrative. The application may be implemented on any suitableplatform (e.g., a personal computer (“PC”), a mainframe computer, a dumbterminal, a data display, a two-way pager, a wireless terminal, aportable telephone, a portable computer, a palmtop computer, an H/PC, anautomobile PC, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (“PDA”),a combined cellular phone and PDA, etc.) to provide such features.

It will also be understood that the detailed description herein may bepresented in terms of program procedures executed on a computer ornetwork of computers. These procedural descriptions and representationsare the means used by those skilled in the art to most effectivelyconvey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art.

A procedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistentsequence of steps leading to a desired result. These steps are thoserequiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, thoughnot necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical ormagnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined,compared and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient at times,principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals asbits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or thelike. It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities.

Further, the manipulations performed are often referred to in terms,such as adding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mentaloperations performed by a human operator. No such capability of a humanoperator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of theoperations described herein which form part of the present invention;the operations are machine operations. Useful machines for performingthe operation of the present invention include general purpose digitalcomputers or similar devices.

The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing theseoperations. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the requiredpurpose or it may comprise a general purpose computer as selectivelyactivated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer.The procedures presented herein are not inherently related to aparticular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose machinesmay be used with programs written in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove more convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these machines will appear from the description given.

The System according to the invention may include a general purposecomputer, or a specially programmed special purpose computer. The usermay interact with the system via e.g., a personal computer or over PDA,e.g., the Internet, an Intranet, etc. Either of these may be implementedas a distributed computer system rather than a single computer.Similarly, the communications link may be a dedicated link, a modem overa POTS line, the Internet and/or any other method of communicatingbetween computers and/or users. Moreover, the processing could becontrolled by a software program on one or more computer systems orprocessors, or could even be partially or wholly implemented inhardware.

Although a single computer may be used, the system according to one ormore embodiments of the invention is optionally suitably equipped with amultitude or combination of processors or storage devices. For example,the computer may be replaced by, or combined with, any suitableprocessing system operative in accordance with the concepts ofembodiments of the present invention, including sophisticatedcalculators, hand held, laptop/notebook, mini, mainframe and supercomputers, as well as processing system network combinations of thesame. Further, portions of the system may be provided in any appropriateelectronic format, including, for example, provided over a communicationline as electronic signals, provided on CD and/or DVD, provided onoptical disk memory, etc.

Any presently available or future developed computer software languageand/or hardware components can be employed in such embodiments of thepresent invention. For example, at least some of the functionalitymentioned above could be implemented using Visual Basic, C, C++ or anyassembly language appropriate in view of the processor being used. Itcould also be written in an object oriented and/or interpretiveenvironment such as Java and transported to multiple destinations tovarious users.

Turning to FIGS. 3 and 4, simplified flowcharts illustrating the stepsperformed in providing an information management application thatdisplays matrix displays of information in accordance with someembodiments of the present invention are provided. These are generalizedflowcharts. It will be understood that the steps shown in FIGS. 3 and 4may be performed in any suitable order, some steps may be deleted, andothers added.

As shown in FIG. 3, the process begins with receiving information from auser that relates to a product or a service (step 310). The informationmanagement application may allow the user to input information or linksto information relating to a particular product or service. For example,the user may input information relating to specifications, options,prices, consumer reports, models, maintenance, local dealerships, otherautomobiles the user is interested in, financing options, insurancequotes, etc. Some of the information inputted by the user, such as theprice quote received from a particular dealer, may be categorized andplaced in, for example, the “Prices” category and/or the “Dealership”category. In another example, the information management application mayreformat the information such that it compiles the price quotes receivedfrom all users purchasing the same product or service.

Alternatively, the information management application may receive aquery from the user for information relating to a product or a service(step 320). For example, the user may input a query for information onthe prices of 2007 sedans. In response, the application transmits thequery to multiple information sources, such as search engines,informational websites, etc. (step 330). The application may thenreceive the information from the multiple information sources (step340).

In some embodiments, the information management application may compilethe information obtained from the user for a particular product orservice. For example, in addition to information inputted by the user orstored locally in the user's computer (e.g., a local cache), theinformation management application may determine that the most popularwebsites that users access to obtain consumer reports are the Edmundswebsite (www.edmunds.com) and the Car and Driver website(www.caranddriver.com). In response, the information managementapplication may retrieve the information relating to the particularproduct or service from those websites and display the retrievedinformation along with the stored or inputted information.

The information management application may use the received informationalong with one or more templates to generate a matrix display (e.g.,display 500 shown in FIG. 5). In some embodiments, the informationmanagement application may retrieve metadata or any other suitable tagfrom the information entered by the user or from the informationretrieved by the information management application to determinecategories of information (e.g., Prices, Dealerships, Consumer Reports,etc.). Alternatively, the user may input the categories to theinformation management application. Using the information organizingtemplates, the information management application generates a customizeddisplay of information and/or links to information for other users tonavigate (step 350).

As shown in FIG. 4, the information management application may determinewhether updated information is available by transmitting a second queryto the plurality of information sources (step 410). In some embodiments,the application may retransmit a query to multiple websites (e.g.,www.caranddriver.com, www.edmunds.com, etc.) and determine whetherupdated or changed pricing information is provided. In response toreceiving the updated information from one or more of the informationsources (step 420), the information management application updates thematrix display to include the updated information from at least one ofthe information sources (step 430). For example, if www.caranddriver.cominforms the application that, due to high demand, the price for the 2007Honda sedan has gone up $1,000, the application updates the matrixdisplay and notifies the user of the update. The information managementapplication may also display an indicator that notifies the user thatupdated information has been received (step 440). For example, if theuser has a matrix display for particular vacation research, updatedinformation on package discounts, price increases, weather alerts,cancellations, or any other suitable information may be updated atpredetermined times (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly, etc.).

Turning now to FIG. 5, an illustrative visual display screen 500 thatmay be provided in accordance with some embodiments of the presentinvention is displayed. The information management application isdesigned to provide users with the ability to efficiently andconveniently create, customize, and/or display information relating to aparticular product or service. As shown in FIG. 5, the user may inputinformation relating to a particular product or service and theinformation management system may generate a visual display thatrepresents the inputted information. The application may also receivethe information from multiple information sources and generate a visualmatrix display that represents the received information.

It should be noted that screen 500 of FIG. 5 is related to generating avisual display relating to automobiles (e.g., 2006 Honda Vans). However,the information may relate to any other suitable subject, such as, forexample, travel, electronics, household goods, or any other suitableproduct or service.

Screen 500 includes graphical buttons 510 that link the user toinformation relating to a specific product or service. Graphical buttons510 may be associated with text, links, photos, vectors, animations,etc.

As shown, screen 500 of FIG. 5 and other screens are designed to beprovided on a computer display (e.g., display 204 of workstation 102 ordisplay 222 of server 110 of FIGS. 1 and 2). However, it should be notedthat the format and contents of the screens that follow may be modifiedto accommodate different platforms, if desired. It should also be notedthat some, all, or alternatives to the following screens may be providedto a user of the information management application in accordance withthe present invention.

In some embodiments, the information management application may allowthe user to input information or links to information relating to aparticular product or service. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the userinputted information relating to specifications, options, prices,consumer reports, models, maintenance, local dealerships, otherautomobiles the user is interested in, financing options, insurancequotes, etc. Some of the information inputted by the user may be a linkto the information. For example, the user may indicate that the consumerreports information that the user prefers is from the Edmunds website(www.edmunds.com). However, another user may create a similar displaythat uses consumer reports information from Car and Driver website(www.caranddriver.com). Some of the information inputted by the user,such as the price quote received from a particular dealer, may becategorized and placed in, for example, the “Prices” category and/or the“Dealership” category. In another example, the information managementapplication may reformat the information such that it compiles the pricequotes received from all Users purchasing the same product or service.

In some embodiments, the information management application may compilethe information obtained from users for a particular product or service.For example, the information management application may determine thatthe most popular websites that users access to obtain consumer reportsare the Edmunds website (www.edmunds.com) and the Car and Driver website(www.caranddriver.com). In response, the information managementapplication may retrieve the information relating to the particularproduct or service from those websites and display the retrievedinformation in response to a user selecting a “Consumer Reports” buttonor any other suitable graphical interface.

In some embodiments, the information management application may compilepricing information for a particular product or service. For example,the information management application may determine that users accesscnet.com and mysimon.com for pricing information. In response, theinformation management application may retrieve the best prices so thatusers using the information management application may compare pricesfrom different pricing information websites.

In response to inputting obtained information from the user or retrievedinformation from the application, the information management applicationmay use information organizing templates to generate display 500 shownin FIG. 5. For example, the information management application mayretrieve metadata or any other suitable tag from the information enteredby the user to determine categories of information (e.g., Prices,Dealerships, Consumer Reports, etc.). In another example, the user mayinput the categories to the information management application. In yetanother example, the application may use terms from the query togenerate topics and/or categories (e.g., 2006, Honda, sedans, prices,etc.). Using the information organizing templates, the informationmanagement application generates a customized display of informationand/or links to information for other users to navigate.

As shown in FIG. 5, the information management application may useinformation organizing templates to create a mosaic or matrix display500 that includes categories of topics based at least in part on theinformation inputted by the user, information retrieved from multipleinformation sources, or the metadata associated with that information.In response to selecting a button or link on the mosaic display 500, theinformation management application may provide the user with theinformation relating to the button or link (e.g., by using a web browserapplication to access information associated with a link).

In some embodiments, the information management application may transmitthe information submitted by the user to a web development softwarepackage (e.g., Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, etc.). Theweb development software package may receive the information submittedby the user and instructions from the information management applicationto generate a web page that includes the information submitted by theuser.

As shown in FIG. 6, screen 600 provides the user with a display ofinformation and links to information for information relating to Vans.Using screen 600 or any other suitable interface, the informationmanagement application provides the user with access to informationobtained from other users. The user may use the information to makedecisions (e.g., purchasing decisions) relating to the specific productor service.

It should be noted that the information and/buttons may include, forexample, graphics (e.g., text, images, background filler, visualobjects, visual effects, etc.), video segments, audio segments (e.g.,synthesized speech, music, background sounds, etc.), animations, etc.

In some embodiments, the user may be required to log in to access thedisplays of information and links to information (e.g., screens 500,600, 700, and 800). The user that created the display may inviteparticular users to access the displays. Alternatively, the user thatcreated the display may allow all users to access the displays. In someembodiments, the user attempting to access the displays may be requiredto join a group (e.g., indicating interest in a particular product orservice).

In response to logging in or joining a group, each user may be providedwith restrictive access. For example, some users (e.g., users providedwith permission from the user that created the display) may edit ormodify the display and/or the information associated with the display.In another example, some users (e.g., users not provided with permissionfrom the user that created the display) may only be allowed to view thedisplay and its associated information and links to information.

As shown in FIG. 7, in response to the user indicating a desire toaccess another user's vacation research, the information managementapplication provides the user with an illustrative information screen700. Illustrative information screen 700 provides the user with agraphical display of links. For example, in response to the userselecting the “Hotels” button, the information management applicationmay provide the user with links to particular hotels that other users'recommend. In response to selecting a link to a particular hotel, theinformation management application may access the website correspondingto the selected link or execute a web browser application that accessesthe website. In another example, the information management applicationmay provide the user with other users' reviews and recommendations thathave been entered. Each link may be displayed as a combination of astill picture (e.g., clipped from the linked website) and the title ofthe category (e.g., hotel).

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the application may provide users with one ormore purchasing opportunities. In response to one or more users loggingin to access the display, joining a particular group to access thedisplay, or performing any other suitable approach, the informationmanagement application may provide the users with a purchasingopportunity. For example, the information management application may setup a bulk transaction such that a group of users receive a discount forpurchasing a product or a service in bulk. Each user of the bulktransaction may receive a discount, for example, because shipping costsare reduced when purchased in bulk, because the manufacturer,distributor, or seller of the product or service may only sell theproduct or service when purchased in bulk, etc.

In some embodiments, the application may generate a matrix display for aparticular product or service (e.g., a Hawaii vacation) in response to auser obtaining or inputting information retrieved from various websites.The matrix display may provide the user with price quotes and/orpurchasing opportunities from one or more merchants for the particularproduct or service. The application may provide the matrix display toother users. For example, a publicly accessible website may allow otherusers to search for information on a particular product or service, suchas the Hawaii vacation. In response, the publicly available website maydisplay the previously generated matrix display. The application mayalso receive an indication from at least one of the other users that theuser is interesting in the same purchasing opportunity (e.g., purchasinga Hawaii vacation package from a particular merchant). The applicationmay determine which of the users are interested in such a purchasingopportunity and transmit the information to the merchant. In response,the merchant may provide the interested users with a bulk discount. Theapplication may provide the interested users with a bulk purchasingopportunity with the bulk discount.

In some embodiments, the information management application may providethe user with a purchasing opportunity that provides the users withleverage to negotiate with the manufacturer, distributor, or seller. Forexample, the displays shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 may relate to purchasinghealth insurance. In response to a user using the displays to reviewinformation on the display or information from the links on the display,the user may indicate an interest to purchasing a particular package ofhealth insurance. In response to multiple users indicating the sameinterest, the information management application may aggregate theinformation from the multiple users to obtain an improved package ofhealth insurance for the group of users. For example, the informationmanagement application may transmit the information to the healthcareprovider or service provider (e.g., number of users, age of each user,health of each user, life expectancy of each user, etc.). In response,the healthcare provider or service provider may provide the informationmanagement application with a modified health insurance package. Forexample, for the group of users, the premiums may be reduced, theprescription drug benefits may be expanded, the number of in-networkdoctors may be expanded, etc. The group of users may then accept orreject the modified health insurance package proposed by the healthcareprovider or service provider. Accordingly, this allows users withsimilar purchasing interests to aggregate their resources to obtainleverage and negotiate an improved arrangement and transaction.

In some embodiments, the buttons or links of FIGS. 5-8 may indicate aparticular activity to the user. As shown in FIG. 8, the buttons and/orlinks may be highlighted to indicate a recent change or a warning. Forexample, the “Weather” link is highlighted to show that a weatheradvisory or warning has been issued in the area and such an advisory orwarning may alter the vacation plans of the user. In another example,the “Airfare” link is highlighted in the “Hawaii” column to show thatdiscounted flights to Hawaii are available. In yet another example, the“Purchasing Opportunities” link is highlighted to show that users mayjoin in on a purchasing opportunity (e.g., purchasing a vacation packagein bulk with other users).

In some embodiments, the information management application may be usedto create collaborative matrix displays that allow a community of usersto add, edit, and/or remove content with the use of metadata.

In some embodiments, the information management application may be usedto inform another application for constructing commercials and/oradvertisements. For example, the information management application maydetermine trends, demographic information, and/or other metadata used ingenerating particular matrix displays. Semantic criteria and/or metadatacharacteristics from the matrix displays may be transmitted to anediting/assembly software package or a user of the editing/assemblysoftware package. The editing/assembly software package may be used toretrieve media segments relating to the semantic criteria and/ormetadata characteristics and assemble one or more versions of the mediacontent. Editing/assembly software packages and features for creatingpersonalized messages based on user information are described in, forexample, commonly-owned, commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/545,524, filed Apr. 7, 2000, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety. Editing/assembly software packages andfeatures for creating personalized messages using semantic criteriaand/or metadata characteristics is also described in, for example,commonly-owned, commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/449,299, filed Jun. 8, 2007, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

Accordingly, the information management application provides users withthe ability to create and customize displays of information relating toa particular product or service for navigation by other users. As aresult, the information management application allows other users toview these customized displays to review the information compiled by aparticular user or users. Users may modify the customized displays toadd other information. In response to reviewing the information in thecustomized displays, the information management application allows usersto join in a purchasing opportunity.

As described hereinabove, the information management application of thepresent invention may allow users to generate, customize, and/ordistribute information displays. One of ordinary skill would know how toutilize standard algorithms to implement the processes of the presentinvention based on the information provided in this application.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited in itsapplication to the details of construction and to the arrangements ofthe components set forth in the following description or illustrated inthe drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of beingpracticed and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understoodthat the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purposeof description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception,upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basisfor the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carryingout the several purposes of the present invention. It is important,therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalentconstructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

Although the present invention has been described and illustrated in theforegoing exemplary embodiments, it is understood that the presentdisclosure has been made only by way of example, and that numerouschanges in the details of implementation of the invention may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for facilitatinginteraction between users, the method comprising, by a processor of aserver computing device: receiving a first query for information from auser computing device, the information relating to at least one of aproduct and a service; transmitting the first query to a plurality ofinformation sources: receiving the information from the plurality ofinformation sources in response to the first query; parsing theinformation into a plurality of topics, each of the topics representinga category of metadata relating to the information; generating a matrixdisplay that organizes the received information into the plurality oftopics for presentation at the user computing device; providing accessto the matrix display to a plurality of user computing devices;determining whether updated information is available by transmitting asecond query to the plurality of information sources at a predeterminedtime; receiving the updated information from at least one of theplurality of information sources in response to the second query;updating the matrix display to include the updated information from atleast one of the plurality of information sources; and presenting anindicator that updated information has been received at the usercomputing device.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receivinga purchasing decision from at least one of the plurality of usercomputing devices that has accessed the matrix display.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising compiling a purchasing order from the usercomputing device and at least one of the plurality of user computingdevices.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: determining thatthe compiled purchasing order from the user computing device and the atleast one of the plurality of user computing devices provides adiscount; and transmitting a notification to the user computing deviceand the at least one of the plurality of user computing devicesregarding the discount.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprisingallowing the user computing device and at least one of the plurality ofuser computing devices to leverage the compiled purchasing order toobtain a discounted purchase.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving at least one preference from at least one of theplurality of user computing devices; reformatting the matrix display inaccordance with the received preference; and storing a version of thematrix display.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the matrix display isgenerated using at least one organization template.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising determining the topics in the matrix displayby retrieving metadata from the received information.
 9. A system forfacilitating interaction between users, the system comprising: at leastone processor configured to: receive a first query for information froma user computing device, wherein the information relates to at least oneof a product and a service; transmit the first query to a plurality ofinformation sources; receive the information from the plurality ofinformation sources in response to the first query; parse theinformation into a plurality of topics, each of the topics representinga category of metadata relating to the information: generate a matrixdisplay that organizes the received information into the plurality oftopics for presentation to the user computing device; provide access tothe matrix display generated for the user to a plurality of usercomputing devices; determine whether updated information is available bytransmitting a second query to the plurality of information sources at apredetermined time; receive the updated information from at least one ofthe plurality of information sources in response to the second query;update the matrix display to include the updated information from atleast one of the plurality of information sources; and present anindicator that updated information has been received to the usercomputing device.
 10. A method for presenting purchasing opportunities,the method comprising: receiving a query for information from a usercomputing device accessing a publicly accessible website, wherein theinformation relates to at least one of a product and a service from amerchant; using the received query to retrieve information relating tothe at least one of the product and the service, wherein the informationis retrieved from a plurality of Internet websites and wherein theinformation includes a purchasing opportunity for the at least one ofthe product and the service; parsing the information into a plurality ofcategories, each of the categories representing a selection of metadatarelating to the information; assembling a matrix display configured toorganize the retrieved information into the categories, wherein thematrix display is associated with the user computing device and the atleast one of the product and the service; presenting the matrix displayto a plurality of user computing devices on a publicly accessiblewebsite configured to transmit queries for the at least one of theproduct and the service, wherein each of the plurality of user computingdevices is allowed to provide an indication of purchasing interest forthe at least one of the product and the service; determining which ofthe user computing device and the plurality of user computing devicesare interested in the purchasing opportunity; transmitting anotification to the merchant based at least in part on thedetermination; receiving a bulk discount for the at least one of theproduct and the service from the merchant; and providing the usercomputing device and the plurality of user computing devices with a bulkpurchasing opportunity from the merchant for the at least one of theproduct and the service at the bulk discount.
 11. The method of claim10, further comprising allowing the user computing device and at leastone of the plurality of user computing devices to leverage the bulkpurchasing opportunity to obtain the bulk discount.
 12. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the matrix display is generated using at least oneorganization template.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the matrixdisplay organizes the received information into a plurality of topicsarranged in a plurality of columns and rows.
 14. The method of claim 13,further comprising determining the topics in the matrix display byretrieving metadata from the received information.
 15. A system forfacilitating interaction between users, the system comprising: at leastone processor configured to: receive a query for information from a usercomputing device accessing a publicly accessible website, wherein theinformation relates to at least one of a product and a service from amerchant; use the received query to retrieve information relating to theat least one of the product and the service, wherein the information isretrieved from a plurality of Internet websites and wherein theinformation includes a purchasing opportunity for the at least one ofthe product and the service; parse the information into a plurality ofcategories, each of the categories representing a selection of metadatarelating to the information; assemble a matrix display configured toorganize the retrieved information into the categories, wherein thematrix display is associated with the user computing device and the atleast one of the product and the service; present the matrix display toa plurality of user computing devices on a publicly accessible websiteconfigured to transmit queries for the at least one of the product andthe service, wherein each of the plurality of user computing devices isallowed to provide an indication of purchasing interest for the at leastone of the product and the service; determine which of the usercomputing device and the plurality of user computing devices areinterested in the purchasing opportunity; transmit a notification to themerchant based at least in part on the determination; receive a bulkdiscount for the at least one of the product and the service from themerchant; and provide the user computing device and the plurality ofuser computing devices with a bulk purchasing opportunity from themerchant for the at least one of the product and the service at the bulkdiscount.